Category: water

WORLD WATER DAY. AND THE WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF WATER IN THE GROUND.

Not because it isn’t raining. Because we have spent seventy years building systems designed to move rainfall off the land as fast as possible — graded terraces, drainage channels, sealed surfaces — and into rivers that carry it to the…

Newsletter (NL 2025-07) Promoting the Vetiver System, Landscaping, Feedback, Learning from the past

PROMOTING THE VETIVER SYSTEM Getting people to change long used practices, whether they be users or advisor/designers/policy makers, can take many years. You can teach hundreds of people how to use vetiver grass technology, of those hundreds fewer will use...

Newsletter — Vetiver related soil moisture, Development aid, Vetiver service companies, Social Media platforms, New webmaster. (NL2025-03)

Contents Toggle Vetiver enhances soil moisture.Measuring soil moisture:Vetiver’s growth under dry conditions in Vietnam.Companion planting with VetiverVetiver food forest and honey productionVetiver longevity: Thirty year old vetiver hedgerowDevelopment aid funding cuts:Key challenges include:Promoting vetiver as an autonomous adoption practiceCommunity and...

The Broken Hydrological (Water) Cycle — and Feedback from Vetiver users (NL 2024-08)

The Broken Hydrological (Water) Cycle. Summer is always a rather slow time for exchanging vetiver information –  a time to relax and reflect.  I have been re-reading Charles Massy’s book “Call of the Reed Warbler” (available from e.Books.com). It makes…

Vetiver Farm Design Applications, Mulching and other News. NL-2024-04

Over the years many people have started using vetiver and, in the process, have joined various vetiver social media groups. I realize that many of them find the amount of information available overwhelming, and often not easy to find. This…

Critical Info and Data are in these Newsletters!

Vetiver Network News Letters from 1990-2002 This compilation of newsletters created from the originals, the latter were authored by Jim Smyle, Joan Miller, and Dick Grimshaw, record the research and development of the Vetiver Grass Technology following its introduction by…

Vetiver Grass Technology at Scale and at a Landscape Level. (TVNI-NL-2023-12)

    Under current policies and practices, the process of restoring the health of soils and the Global Hydrological Cycle (both are critical to plant growth, and the very survival of plants and animals (including Homo sapiens!), is going to…

Stiff Grass Hedgerows (Barriers) and Contour Cultivation are Key to Watershed Improvements

TVNI, as a knowledge based organization, has a primary goal of promoting the Vetiver System (VS) across several economic and natural resource sectors. It is possible to do this because of the unique character of Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) that…

Vetiver Hedge Spacing, Commercial Applications and News from Latin America (TVNI-NL-2023-11)

Vetiver Hedge Spacing. Effects of initial spacing on Vetiver hedgerow closure at 24 months, demonstrating that establishing a functional Vetiver hedgerow requires that the Vetiver be planted close together. Photo courtesy of Dr. P.K.Yoon (1993) In writing the first article…